there is that moment
When you have spent all week writing code for that piece of equipment- you know, the one that costs as much as a new lambo, and you have the part and the tools and the code in place and its time to push the GO button. Im here to tell you it will make you pucker.
17 comments Og | Uncategorized
…then the brasshats gather to watch you, your $60k titanium billet on the milling machine. You ask the boss of bosses to hit a key to initiate milling. He does, the machine starts, all watch as the computer trashes the workpiece.
Happened to a Boeing machinist buddy of mine. His shop made the main landing gear for 747s at the time.
Yeah, seen that sort of thing several times. Once at the international machine tool show.
Bigger Audience…
Cutting an 4-40 insert out of a “finished” part, no spares, 6 months lead time, worth 1 million or so with your program behind 6 months, while your department manager your boss and the program manager breathe down your neck. I miss those days.
Not for the faint of heart.
It’s the same pucker you get when you turn on a new system critical to the program’s and company’s success, with the entire management chain waiting for your results.
I remember one time, after the hi-pressure demo, I was taking a prototype apart when a power wire curled over and (naturally) grabbed the only square eighth of an inch in the entire box that was live 120V from the outlet. The whole thing exploded in my hands. The top of one component launched into the ceiling and briefly stuck in the ceiling tile. The part left behind on the board caught fire.
Thankfully, it was after the demo.
Been there. Million dollars worth of transformer. $200K worth of circuit breaker. You’ve just called the utility company and it’s time to turn the handle and throw two hundred thirty thousand volts a stuff you’ve spent a month putting together and checking out.
And it works.
Good feeling.
MC
Good feeling when it works as advertized…
Good feeling indeed!
Which is why I don’t make up residential Romex circuits.
Sure, I can, have and will replace any given fixture, change out a ceiling fan, etc.
It’s just that I hate how the circuits are tied in the switch and outlet boxes. And then of course, the builder’s subs follow along and cover it all with drywall texture and paint blown onto the wall (and into the switch boxes) via airless sprayer.
By time I get a look at the circuit, it’s all a monochromatic mess of Romex,wire nuts, texture and paint, messily stuffed into a far-too-small box.
I’d rather not burn my house down, so I pay smart guys like Og or MC to do it, and to do it right.
For which I’m highly appreciative.
Now, industrial circuits make more sense to me. Junction boxes with circuits made up in nice big galvanized spaces, sending their resultant circuit legs down to switches, outlets and powered-units, as needed.
Neat. Logical. Looks like a circuit diagram done up in conduit and hardware.
I worry about a wee 110v, 20 amp breaker leg in a garage, you guys are spinning up industrial leviathans.
Same worry, different scale.
But in a word: THANKS!
I’m sure as hell glad y’all are out there, doing what you do.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Jim-
I have a mantra that I repeat at work quite a bit: “I don’t do residential. I don’t do automotive.”
MC
MC: Do you still use those bigass hydraulic/pneumatic breakers? I remember those things at the mill, you had to pump them up and then push a button to activate them. And hope that the door hinges didn’t blow off.
Many of my big outdoor breakers are still hydraulic but they mostly have electric pumps.
I’ve installed 138,000 volt breakers, each of the three tanks held 700 gallons of oil, and 230,000, where the tanks held 1700 gallons.
You ones you’re talking about are now being phased out because the nanny state thinks it’s too dangerous to operate them like that.
My career was mostly IT, with a sidetrip into the CNC shop for a few years. Nothing in IT compares to the pucker factor of hitting Cycle Start on a new program, especially when there is a big chunk of hardened steel and an eight inch grinding wheel at mumblethousand RPM about to plunge into it under the control of your brand new code. The urge to hit the button and run was strong.
Indeed, twodogs. But I did it again forst thing this morning.
No running required ?
Actually, since i just duplicated what i had previously done, it ran fine.